Know Your Enemy
Know Your Enemy!
Look at me, eye to eye,
I am not your friend, I am the enemy.
You don’t see me….but I’m out there!
Inside the darkness, inside the watching wood.
I’m a gravestone, all colour bleached,
a shade of shadow… that’s different… dangerous.
Not even the trees are aware, I’m there,
as their branches just sway, away, the day.
You draw your curtains, you stiffen
the night pushes closer, you listen.
It whispers dark secrets you can’t hear,
your thoughts hold tension; cold, weighted stone.
Branches and leaves, my partners in crime,
as they fracture my outline.
The wind tests my balance
slides my jacket, pulls my resolve
but I have learnt the language of… stillness;
the understanding of… watchfulness.
I perceive the rhythm of your house,
sense its window-eyes drift to sleep;
your weight of experience drains you
so therefore I have the power.
Nature now feels my thoughts,
thoughts that don’t belong in these woods.
Insects avoid me, unsure if I am alive or dead
while animals swerve and curve away
and the sky rolls ponderously by,
pulling the night's solemnity with it.
No, you don’t know me….yet
but I know.. who? You..
now in the tar of night I move,
the ground feels my weight...but holds its silence.
Your mind hears a bully of footsteps
but I am not there, I can’t be!
But you sense a menace of energy
from someone moving towards you!
Then the cold grasp of silence
coiling itself around the room
and you know I’ve definitely, defiantly arrived.
Zig-zag, jig jag, slip-slow, tip-toe,
My name, Fear, a relative;
sometimes distant, sometimes near.
Too late you realize, I’m already inside your mind.
Know…. your…. enemy!
Ian Souter May 2026
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